I created these videos many moons ago when i ventured on exploring making natural sugar scrubs. Natural sugar scrubs are an easy and fun way to exfoliate your skin especially when trying to survive the winter months which can be extremely hard on ones skin.

The natural oils and butters are a great way to moisturize and replenish skin cells, the sugar acts as the exfoliant. I love adding RICE FLOUR to my skin care products especially when making facial masks, it is said to help with BLEMISHES, WRINKLES, ANTI AGING and PIGMENTATION. It is also a great exfoliant which leaves your skin extremely soft.

OTHER FUN FACTS ON RICE POWDER:

Used to absorb oil to achieve matte skin. If you have very oily skin, brushing rice powder lightly over your face will give you a very matte look. Because of this, it also makes an excellent base for make-up. Rice powder absorbs oil very well and keeps your make-up from fading throughout the day.

In wrinkle creams. Many anti-aging skin creams and wrinkle creams contain ceramides that were extracted from rice. The ceramides in rice closely mimic our skin’s, which can give it a more youthful appearance.

Mineral make-up. Rice powder is used in some loose or pressed powder compacts. It is especially found in mineral make-up. Rice powder does a good job of covering blemishes and flaws to give the skin a smooth finish, and yet it allows the skin to breathe and does not clog pores.

Another ingredient I like to include into my skin care product is HONEY POWDER, it also can be used as skin softener and anti aging property benefit. It’s a humectan which has the ability to attract and retain moisture into the skin without making your skin oily.

there are many ways to build a sugar scrub recipe you just have to find what works for you, I love the fact that it also can be a great craft for the kids and is all natural , we always tend to grab what is easy and on the shelf but do you take the time to read the back ingredients and know what each and everyone means? I personally rather use a natural skin care item where I know what each and every ingredient is this way, sometimes those other products used in the store may be more harmful to one skin then beneficiacl and that could be because the chemical they put into that cream or bath oil leave us with more problems in the futur. We should be more concern what we put onto out bodies because what we put on the outside does effect the inside as well.

Stella Jean: fashion’s latest rising star

The Haitian/Italian designer and ex-model counts Armani and Suzy Menkes among her greatest fans. And this is only the beginning..

BY SOPHIE DE ROSEE | 27 JANUARY 2014

Stella Jean Photo: Jonathan Frantini

Last summer Stella Jean, the 34-year-old half-Italian, half-Haitian fashion designer, was driving her car along a motorway in Italy when her phone rang. It was Sara Maino, the senior fashion editor at Italian Vogue whom she had come to know after winning 2011’s Who’s On Next, the fashion talent competition set up in 2005 by Italian Vogue and Alta Roma, an organisation that supports young talent.

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Sitting in a cafe in Rome, just after her spring/summer 2014 show, Jean explained how the conversation went. Maino asked, ‘Stella, are you sitting down?’

‘Yes,’ I said.

‘What’s your plan for September fashion week?’

‘I’m not sure. It’s not easy for a young designer to put on a fashion show so we’re still not sure.’

‘Well, Giorgio Armani just called and he’s chosen you to show at the Armani/Teatro.’

‘I started to scream so loudly. I had to stop the car, get out and start jumping up and down. Then I called her back and had to ask if it was a joke.’

It wasn’t. Armani chose to support her spring/summer 2014 collection in September by lending her his 550-seat show space in Milan and his communications team – the first time he has ever shared both with another designer. They had never met, but this was Armani’s opportunity to promote new talent in Milan. ‘The new generation of Italian designers needs our support,’ Armani said. ‘It is for this reason that I continue to make my theatre on via Bergognone available to them. Stella Jean will be the next designer to organise a fashion show at the Armani/Teatro, and I hope this experience brings her luck.’

Armani’s gesture proved to be a cornerstone moment in her career. The collection that Jean sent down the runway was full of bold colours and mismatched patterns in ladylike 1950s and 60s silhouettes. The models wore knotted fabric headbands and coloured flowers in their hair, shirts were knotted over colourful bras, waists were nipped in and the oversized accessories were as riotous as the clothes. Jean took her final bow wearing a T-shirt that read grazie mr armani. They had met two days previously at an event organised by Italian Vogue and Jean was so overwhelmed that she cried in front of him. ‘I felt so small talking to such a giant,’ she told me. During the show he wasn’t sitting in the front row, but appeared backstage to congratulate her. He had watched from behind the scenes and loved it.

‘He was very complimentary,’ Jean said. ‘He gave me great feedback: to have faith in what I am doing, not to follow the mainstream, and not to be afraid to follow my own vision. It was good advice for me because sometimes I doubt myself. I think maybe I should be more commercial, but his advice gave me the strength to go on with my unique ideas.’

Stella Jean on the catwalk after her s/s 14 show in Milan

Jean was raised in Rome to a Haitian mother, Violette Jean, and an Italian father, Marcello Novarino, with one younger sister, Manuela. She admits it was hard growing up in a ‘black and white family’. No one believed she was Italian, but she didn’t feel Haitian either. As a teenager she vowed to leave Italy for France or the United States where multicultural families were more accepted.

Jean didn’t finish her political science degree at La Sapienza university in Rome because her interest was drawn to fashion while modelling for Egon von Fürstenberg, the Swiss-born aristocratic fashion designer and ex-husband of Diane von Fürstenberg. He was a friend of Jean’s mother and introduced her to other well-known Italian designers from the 1990s, such as Valextra and Gattinoni. In 2003 Jean had the first of her two children, Grande Marcello Maria, with her then-husband, the art gallery owner Filippo Brando Sproviero (their daughter, Mirella Gaia, is six). But while Jean felt the fashion studio was the right place for her, the role of model was wrong.

With no formal training or drawing ability – she pins fabric on to a model to create her designs (as did Paco Rabanne and Coco Chanel) – it was hard to establish herself as a designer. In 2009, with the help of a seamstress friend, she entered Who’s On Next as Stella Jean (she uses her mother’s maiden name, rather than her given surname, Novarino, for the brand to express the two parts of her heritage, as Jean is one of the most common surnames in Haiti) with three looks aimed at emphasising the locally sourced artisan crafts of hand-painted and hand-embroidered fabrics. But her application was rejected, two years running.

‘They were beautiful, colourful clothes but they didn’t need beautiful clothes,’ Jean said. ‘There are plenty of those already in the world. They needed clothes with a story.’ The talent scout at Alta Roma, Simonetta Gianfelici, the Italian model from the 1980s, advised her that if she was going to enter for a third time she should try to be more sincere and true to herself. ‘That was the first time I applied my own story to my fashion,’ Jean said of her winning collection of 12 looks. Jean’s mix of Italian and Haitian was a unique one.

‘Stella’s unusual ethnicity and her desire to make ethically sound clothes, helping the poorest women in the world, makes her bold and colourful clothes as beautiful inside as out,’ Suzy Menkes of the International Herald Tribune, a firm supporter of Jean’s, said after the show in September.

Who’s On Next rewarded Stella Jean with €5,000, which gave her the chance to establish her label and produce her next collection, which she showed in Rome, with the help of a Milan-based showroom. ‘It was pretty tough at the beginning. I didn’t even know how to buy fabric, pay factories, how much fabric was needed, and so on. But I had constant support from Alta Roma and the editors at Italian Vogue.’

Jean’s label was viable from the outset, with each collection financing the next, but it was her third collection, which she showed at the Armani/Teatro in Milan, that attracted international buyers. Natalie Kingham, the head of fashion at Matches, loved the collection as soon as she saw it in the lookbook that was sent to the office in late 2012. ‘There is a playfulness but it also looks very fresh and grown up,’ she says. The autumn/winter 2013 skirts and dresses sold out instantly. Jean adds, ‘The showroom said it was the first time since the 1980s that a small label started from zero, then doubled after the first collection, and tripled after the second, and so on. I know it’s not a good moment for international finance but our sales have been really surprising.’

Multiculturalism remains the crux of Jean’s work. ‘I want to communicate through clothes a concept of opposite worlds and traditions fusing together in a sophisticated way and standing side by side with equal importance, not covering the other up,’ Jean says. She is not the first fashion designer to be inspired by Africa or the Caribbean but she represents a new school of designers that seek to use fashion in a smarter, more ethically sound way.

For her spring/summer 2014 collection, Jean travelled to Burkina Faso, west Africa, with the International Trade Centre’s Ethical Fashion Initiative, a United Nations project, to source local fabrics in underprivileged areas. She met artisan weavers and embroiderers and, overwhelmed by the wealth of talent, returned home brimming with hand-woven striped fabrics and ideas.

Still based in Rome, where she lives with her children, Jean employs a producer for her biannual womenswear collections. She launched her first menswear collection for spring/summer 2014 and has more projects in the pipeline. She travels every week to her showroom in Milan and her factory in Cesena, while her children stay with her ex-husband, with whom she has a very good relationship.

Jean’s heritage and family continue to inspire her. For womenswear she cites photographs of her mother and grandmother, hence the 1950s and 60s silhouettes of her clothes, with a cinched-in waist and exaggerated fullness at the hips. For her menswear line she draws on memories of her late father’s classic Italian style. She calls it a ‘wax and stripes philosophy’: the wax fabrics from her mother’s heritage combined with the stripes from her father’s shirts from Turin. She describes her own personal style as ‘mannish’. ‘I do wear feminine circle skirts on occasion, but I’m usually dressed like a man, often in men’s clothes. I was very close to my father so I wear some of his things. And I love Church’s shoes.’

Jean plans to continue melding cultures together using fabrics from all over the world, including India, Mongolia and South America. For autumn/winter 2014 she has set her sights on Japan, adding its fabrics to her pot.

‘It is so far from Africa. It will either work or be a disaster. I don’t know.’

Today CNN chief congressional correspondent Dana Bash sat down with SenateMajority LeaderHarry Reid for an exclusive state of the union interview.

Please Credit – CNN Chief Congressional Correspondent Dana BashTHIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BASH: Name another issue where you are encouraging the president to use an executive order.

REID: I think there’s some things within the environment, the Republicans are obsessed with there is no climate change. The EPA is trying to ruin the country. The — what we shouldn’t do renewable energy. The president, I think, has some leeway to do some things in this trade way and I’m confident that he will to help the environment which has been denigrated as we speak.
—-

U.S. President Barack Obama delivers the state of the union address before a joint session of Congress in the House chamber Tuesday as Vice-President Joe Biden and House Speaker John Boehner listen.(Larry Downing/Associated Press)i

Barack Obama urges ‘year of action’ in state of union speech

U.S. president touts health-care reform, presses for change on immigration

UPDATEDJan 28, 2014 10:44 PM ET

Thomson Reuters

President Barack Obama is vowing to bypass a divided Congress and take action on his own to bolster America’s middle class in a state of the union speech he used to try to breathe new life into his second term after a troubled year.

Standing in the House of Representatives chamber before legislators, Supreme Court justices and VIP guests, Obama declared his independence from Congress by issuing a raft of executive orders — a move likely to inflame already tense relations between the Democratic president and Republicans.

Obama’s actions, while relatively modest, collectively amounted to an expression of frustration at the pace of legislative action with Republicans who control the House of Representatives and are able to slow the president’s agenda.

The president says he plans to issue an executive order in the coming weeks requiring federal contractors to pay their federally funded employees at least $10.10 an hour, and urged Congress to raise the federal minimum wage to the same amount.

“Say yes. Give America a raise.”

Obama touted the work of Republicans and Democrats is producing a budget last month, saying the budget compromise should leave the government freer to focus on creating new jobs.

“In the coming months, let’s see where else we can make progress together. Let’s make this a year of action. That’s what most Americans want — for all of us in this chamber to focus on their lives, their hopes, their aspirations. And what I believe unites the people of this nation, regardless of race or region or party, young or old, rich or poor, is the simple, profound belief in opportunity for all — the notion that if you work hard and take responsibility, you can get ahead,” he said.

‘I don’t expect to convince my Republican friends on the merits of this [health-care] law. But I know that the American people aren’t interested in refighting old battles.’

“Let’s face it: that belief has suffered some serious blows. Over more than three decades, even before the great recession hit, massive shifts in technology and global competition had eliminated a lot of good, middle-class jobs, and weakened the economic foundations that families depend on.”

A central theme of the address, Obama’s sixth such annual speech in the House chamber, is addressing income inequality, as middle-class Americans struggle to get ahead even while wealthier people prosper in the uneven economic recovery.

‘Let’s get immigration reform done’

Obama’s strategy means he has scaled back ambitions for large legislative actions and wants to focus more on small-bore initiatives that can reduce income inequality and create more opportunities for middle class workers.

First lady Michelle Obama and guests listen as President Barack Obama gives State of the Union address on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday Jan. 28, 2014.(Susan Walsh/Associated Press)

Obama defended his controversial health-care law, whose troubled roll-out last October rocked his presidency and sent his job approval ratings tumbling to around 40 per cent.

“I don’t expect to convince my Republican friends on the merits of this law,” Obama said. “But I know that the American people aren’t interested in refighting old battles.”

On one of his biggest priorities, immigration reform, Obama urged Congress to work together on an overhaul, but he held his fire on the issue, with signs of possible progress developing in recent days among House Republicans.

“Let’s get immigration reform done this year,” he said.

Obama also pledged to continue to work to reduce violence in the United States despite a lack of support in Congress for gun control measures he failed to get passed last year.

“I have seen the courage of parents, students, pastors, and police officers all over this country who say, ‘We are not
afraid,’ and I intend to keep trying, with or without Congress, to help stop more tragedies from visiting innocent Americans in our movie theatres, shopping malls, or schools,” Obama said, according to the text of his state of the union address.

Both immigration and gun control were reforms on Obama’s to-do list last year that stalled in Congress.

‘While our relationship with Afghanistan will change, one thing will not: our resolve that terrorists do not launch attacks against our country.’– U.S. President Barack Obama

He also told lawmakers he will veto any efforts to increase sanctions on Iran while the United States and other Western powers were in diplomatic talks with Tehran over its nuclear program.

“The sanctions that we put in place helped make this opportunity possible,” Obama said, according to the text of his address, referring to diplomatic talks.

“But let me be clear: if this Congress sends me a new sanctions bill now that threatens to derail these talks, I will veto it. For the sake of our national security, we must give diplomacy a chance to succeed.”

Closing Guantanamo Bay

In his speech, Obama said this needs to be the year the prison at Guantanamo Bay is closed.

“Because we counter terrorism not just through intelligence and military action, but by remaining true to our constitutional ideals, and setting an example for the rest of the world,” he said.

Obama said the U.S. government will “support a unified Afghanistan as it takes responsibility for its own future,” without making any specific promises around troop levels in the country.

“If the Afghan government signs a security agreement that we have negotiated, a small force of Americans could remain in Afghanistan with NATO allies to carry out two narrow missions: training and assisting Afghan forces, and counterterrorism operations to pursue any remnants of al-Qaeda,” he said.

“For while our relationship with Afghanistan will change, one thing will not: our resolve that terrorists do not launch attacks against our country.”

Obama only briefly mentioned one of the biggest controversies that has gripped his administration over the past year in his annual State of the Union speech Tuesday, repeating his pledge to overhaul U.S. surveillance programs in cooperation with Congress.

He said U.S. intelligence systems depend on the public’s confidence that privacy rights are not being violated either at home or abroad.

Lawmakers are divided over how far to roll back the National Security Agency programs that collect billions of telephone and Internet records from across the U.S. and the rest of the world every day.

The spy programs were revealed last summer by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

Obama made no mention of whether he would approve the long-delayed Keystone XL Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline that environmentalists oppose.

Republicans clambered for some of the same rhetorical ground as Obama in pledging to narrow the gap between rich and poor, but staked out a different vision for doing so.

“It’s one that champions free markets and trusts people to make their own decisions, not a government that decides for you,” Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, chairwoman of the House Republican caucus, said in her party’s response to Obama’s speech. “It helps working families rise above the limits of poverty and protects our most vulnerable.”

Obama is trying to recover from a difficult fifth year in office, when immigration and gun control legislation failed to advance in Congress and his health-care law struggled out of the starting gate.

3. Spray is some witch hazel slowly, be careful or it might begin to fizz, usually water might of set the fizzing process therefore I use witch hazels. Dig in with your hands and mix well making sure everything is sticking together.

4. Pack into a mold and let set 24-48hours5. After they are nice and solid you can package them up and give them as a nice gift.